AN ELDERLY Furness motorist had a lucky escape after her car careered off a Lancaster bridge into the fast-flowing River Lune.
The car, a blue Citroen Saxo driven by Bernice Dent, 70, from Barrow, smashed through the ornate bridge wall of Skerton Bridge, close to Lancaster city centre, at lunchtime on Tuesday and plunged 40 feet into the icy water below.
The vehicle landed on its wheels but finished up 30 yards downstream with Mrs Dent still at the wheel.
The tide was going out when the accident happened but only a few hours earlier the river was high and flowing rapidly.
Large crowds of onlookers gathered on the banks of the river, while around 25 fire-fighters were summoned to the scene and mounted police blocked off one lane of the bridge.
The North West Air Ambulance swooped into the city and put down on the south bank of the river while an RNLI hovercraft rescued Mrs Dent from her stricken vehicle, which was in water up to its wheel arches.
Mrs Dent managed to see the funny side of her brush with death and was seen laughing and joking with onlookers, throughout the rescue operation.
She was later taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary as a precaution but she was not seriously injured.
Mike Hughes, who was working close to the scene, said: "We heard a massive bang and went across the road straight away. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the car in the river."
Lancaster fire station watch manager Karl Vietoris said: "The woman was in quite a remarkable condition given what had happened. She was shouting up to us on the bridge and putting her walking stick in the water to give us an indication of how deep it was.
"It could have been so different had the tide been in or if the car had landed differently. The woman was lucky although visibly shocked."
A police spokesman confirmed an investigation had started into the cause of the accident, although it appeared the Citroen Saxo had been involved in a collision with a lorry on the bridge before plummeting into the water.
l MAKING A SPLASH: The car in the River Lune after it careered off a Lancaster bridge. (D5K198GG03)
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